She should have been coaxed into a Citroën: the capitalising André had spotted the gap in the market and was hastily attempting to fill it with specialised B12s. All 2000 or so were handmade in Levallois-Perret in northern Paris rather than pressed out of steel like the standard B12. But the BBC purportedly couldn’t find enough of them to fill the French ranks. In fact, the production team could find only one Citroën and no other. They found this car.
“There used to be one in Belgium,” says Martin de Little, the man who finished its restoration around five years ago. “It is no competition for this taxi; it has missed all the nuances.”
The same could not be said of this landaulet. The detail finish is painstaking, the extra mile stretching far through its thin, letterbox rear window. This was the final passion project of marque aficionado Maurice Bailey, who died before it first returned to the road completed. It was quite literally his parting gift to the world.
This story is from the May 2022 edition of Classic & Sports Car.
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This story is from the May 2022 edition of Classic & Sports Car.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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